The information is contained in the latest Electricity Forecasting Insights published by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).

“Projections for strong growth in rooftop PV and other consumer changes, along with closure of the automotive industry, are forecast to result in lower consumption in the next two years,” the report said.

The AEMO web page which contains the quote about closing the automotive industry is available here. Also archived here, in case the AEMO decides to edit the entry about South Australia.

I guess this is one sure way to stabilise a green electricity grid. The more factories you shut down, particularly energy intensive heavy industry, and the more workers you fire, the more you stabilise the grid.

The closure in the near future of the last of industry in South Australia will result in a totally stable green generated energy system in South Australia, to the great delight of the South Australian government. The last worker will then switch out the lights and trek to Queensland.

We know where Queensland gets its income. And its Coal, coal, coal!
“Queensland exported more coal than ever before in 2016, riding the wave of higher commodity prices.
The state exported 221 million tonnes of coal during the year, according to the Queensland Resources Council, beating last year’s record by one million tonnes, while shipments of the state’s other main resources export, LNG, more than tripled to 17.5 million tonnes.
“This has been an enormous boost to the Queensland economy, providing vital export income, royalties and jobs for Queenslanders,” QRC chief executive Ian Macfarlane said in a statement.”https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/queensland-coal-shipments-break-record-042007056.html

Good news for South Australia!! Ontario, Alberta and Canada are following their lead.

No more nasty industry and dirty industry jobs. Now everyone can work as a barista.

This is what happens when you elect “energy imbeciles” into political power.

Here is a primer for those who do not understand energy:

“Cheap, abundant, reliable energy is the lifeblood of society. It IS that simple.”

Wind and solar power are too intermittent and diffuse to be practical – these non-dispatchable forms of power destabilize the grid, require ~100% conventional backup and cost far too much, harming the economy, killing jobs and driving up winter mortality rates among the elderly and the poor.

*********************************

A decade ago I tried to simplify this message for our imbecilic politicians and those who vote for them, and wrote:

“Wind power – it doesn’t just blow – it sucks!”

“Solar power – stick it where the Sun don’t shine!”

Apparently these concepts were still too complicated for the idiot left.

My aunt in Cork (Ireland) installed a solar heater. She’s into this kind of thing. When we discussed renewables we both agreed that at a micro level the individual will adapt to the power source. In the same way you can choose to change when you eat e.g. Intermittent Fasting. She’s a lot more “green” than me but understands economics well.

But at a meso or macro level you cannot adapt society with such volatity to balance the inherent volatility of the power source. Hence renewables by themselves are a terrible idea. As in conceptually. The only reason they are used is because they are backed up by a stable and much less volatile energy source. And that the myth of better storage is just around the corner.

Solar thermal systems are head and shoulders above all other renewable energy sources. I grew up with one that was installed in the 70s and it is basically unchanged if you were to install one today because it is very simple and pragmatic. Not really that “green” minded, just practical and smart.

It’s not just the energy Holden used but also their suppliers. But yes, one way to go renewable is to shutdown your industry and throw people out of employment. Power prices in SA highest nationally. Unemployment is highest nationally.

yeah, and all those now on subsistence level unemployment benefits cant afford to USE power or gas either.
salisbury council banned all new wood burning heaters some yrs ago
mind you woods around 400$ a tonne now anyway so thats not affordable
Kerosines more expensive than petrol and the old kero heaters are hard to find too.

Can shipbuilding be saved?
SA is ripe for a nice big coal fired super critical power station.
The Indians could sell us the coal and ship it from Qld at the international price.
We could then get on and build a few air warfare frigates and a few subs.

Fortunately, Trump can see through this, and that is why he is against the Paris Accord. Other western leaders should be ashamed in not joining him in the withdrawal from that odious and self harming Accord.

There is presently a large transfer of industry/manufacturing from the West to the East. This does not result in the global reduction of CO2, rather that Western Countries are outsourcing the place where their emissions take place to that in the East. This approach is futile if the aim is to reduce on a global level CO2, it merely results in wealth (jobs and prosperity) being transferred from the developed West to the developing nations in the East.

History will eventually judge Western leaders (with the exception of Trump) very badly in deed once the ordinary citizens see their jobs being lost and generally being impoverished by high energy prices being paid for unreliable energy..

This is what Christina Figueres stated was the UN’s intention relative to the climate change scare tactics, global wealth re distribution.

As a concept, it’s admirable. Practically, it is idealistic, simplistic and naive. Wealth distribution in the USSR and China in the 20th century was a monumental, and tragic failure with hundreds of millions of people starved and murdered by those regimes. And I only use those as two of many historic examples.

However, the plan has gone well so far, with wealth being transferred to China, India, Russia etc. other than Trump has stepped in and said “enough”.

And therein lies the problem ambitious politicians are blind to. When one starts a government led initiative, just where does it stop, and how does one stop it when an ‘ideal balance’ is reached, which no one has sought to define as far as I’m aware.

But I suspect some people are waking up to what’s happening, and I mean other than members of blogs and forums like WUWT and notalotofpeopleknowthat.

Personally, as a lifelong conservative voter in the UK (historically, roughly equivalent to US Republicans) the final nail in the coffin of my support for them was the insane announcement that our conservative government will impose EV’s on the country by 2040. The march of socialism is now deeply embedded.

Exactly my position. I never thought I’d see a Conservative govt start to introduce a totalitarian state. However hearing the arrogant Gove launching the ban last week was enough. He has history; it was he who inflicted compulsory phonics as the method of learning to read – whether the child could already read or not – on our primary schools. This was on the basis of some experiences from a small school in Clackmannanshire. So he likes shaky evidence bases,

A much better way is to create wealth, with real people making close judgements about applying their own money to places and projects that make sense. Governments always want to get their hands on the tools (money) to dabble as big shots without any real risk of their own! Socialists want power so they can do this the easy way as they have a deep down feeling that they would never cut it in business- and they’re right!

“…This is what the greens want: the de-industrialisation of the West.This is what Christina Figueres stated was the UN’s intention relative to the climate change scare tactics, global wealth re distribution.” That’s it in a nut shell. It has nothing to do with temperature. Just like globalization has nothing to do with upgrading the losing country to a more sophisticated labor base. It’s implementation of Socialist ideology on a world wide basis.

Problem is, trying to explain it to someone who doesnt subscribe to sceptical blogs, and therefore doesn’t understand what’s going on, looks at you like you have two heads. No matter how logical the explanation you provide, they can’t grasp any of it.

rwoollaston
Actually phonics makes a lot lot of sense because that is mostly how you learned to talk. See the letters, Learn to match them up with words. When you’re done you know how to talk and hot to spell. English has a lot of variation and adopted words though so it isn’t foolproof.
Whole word reading became a fad in the US as more “scientific” when it was really just another fad, such as climate change or easy money. As a result, most people educated after the 1960’s can’t read well, can’t learn new words well, and don’t understand how languages work.

I profoundly disagree with you. I was taught ‘whole’ English, as were many others throughout the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s. We learned the construction of language from it’s basic level, not simply how to recognise words.

From the basic elements, the English language can be adapted, and has flourished and evolved over generations to be inclusive. It is a hybrid language, the mongrel of all languages and all the better for it. We adapt it, and it changes through time, adopting different cultures and dialects. But without the foundation of it’s structure, all sense of it could be, and arguably, is being lost, because of phonetics.

Much like an internal combustion engine, if you have a deep understanding of it’s complicated engineering, one can tune it and make it perform better relative to the prevailing conditions.

English is a living language, it’s expressive and emotive. It empowers subtlety and humour in the same sentence as command and instruction. Giving children the basic tools of English, and the insight into how people like Shakespeare adapted it, empowers them to communicate better than any other language. That’s why it’s the international language across the planet.

Phonics is a simplistic attempt at hybridising a language that is already a hybrid, and all the better for it.

Give people the right tools for the job, and the job is easy. Teaching children Phonics, as a means of learning the English language, is like giving an adult a loaf of bread and expecting a banquet from it.

The argument can be made, almost from first principles, that phonics allows one to recognize words more efficiently than a whole word approach – as well as being able to handle unfamilar words, since one immediately knows what they sound like. Although I haven’t read widely in the subject, apparently there is evidence that the rise in dyslexia is due to the whole word approach to learning to read.

I’ll take you’re last point first and postulate that dyslexia has always been a problem, it was just never recognised. The problem isn’t on the rise, the diagnosis is.

I did a quick search on the difference between phonics and whole words and came up with the following:

“Comparison Between Both Philosophies [Phonics & Whole Language]

Phonics Programs tend to help students with better word recognition, spelling, and pronunciation. By “sounding out” the words through letter recognition, young students memorize how to read the words in front of them. Whole language does not have a written formula to follow, so word identification often is like guesswork for children. However, if only Phonic learning is used, children have major difficulties in reading comprehension, as well as having issues with the creative writing process. Whole language teaches better understanding of text.” http://www.teachnology.com/themes/lang_arts/phonics/wholevsphonics.html

It’s a concise illustration that I believe demonstrates phonics is the easy way to learn to read, but all the poorer for it in the long run. It has it’s place, but this analysis suggests a mixture of both should be used.

The 13,000 workers is probably a clue, plus the average car worker salary of $69,000, versus $2 per hour minimum wage in Thailand, which makes a lot of cars.

The wikipedia entry for energy in Thailand is a hoot, clearly they don’t like the fact that renewables are nowhere. According to wiki rising temperatures will increase electricity demand, no mention being made of the much higher rise in demand due to increasing prosperity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Thailand

Aussie greenies can celebrate the reduction in CO2 from their country, as long as they don’t know that the CO2 emission has simply moved to Thailand and elsewhere in the region.

Although we have Japanese factories here (Nissan & Toyota) and Indian (Jaguar Land Rover) but no mass produced home products.

But then I guess institutional investors, providing pensions, savings etc. can invest in these companies whatever country they are in these days.

I also guess that’s why the City of London is so important as a global financial centre. Arguably, all the profits given to shareholders of Nissan, Toyota etc. eventually end up in UK private pensions.

I thought I had posted this. Two reasons cited. 1; Labor costs. 2; Energy costs. It was 4 times as expensive in labor along to make a car here in Australia than anywhere in Asia, and 2 time as much as anywhere in Europe. Plus the sharp rise in energy costs, even more so since July 1st 2017 with rises for businesses or 20% or more. Many businesses have shut down last month because of it.

Don’t forget that those 13000 laid-off workers will now reduce their energy consumption at home to save money. And they won’t be commuting to work every day thus saving fuel and reducing CO2 emissions, so this is a win-win-win.

“Don’t forget that those 13000 laid-off workers will now reduce their energy consumption at home to save money.” I have news for you. Reducing energy consumption at home will not save money. Why? Simple; The “The GM plant paid for a lot of energy. How with the plant closed your energy provider must make a profit and also paid for all it’s overhead and labor. Those cost will be passed on to the laid off worker as well as other businesses and other home owner. Wait until your energy provider CEO says “WE NEED A RATE INCREASE BECAUSE WE ARE NOT SELLING ENOUGH ENERGY”.

Well at least they’ve fully removed the mask now. It’s nothing less than full reversion to a rustic peasant economy and if that is what the people of SA wish and vote for then that is what they shall have.

The coming closure of the Holden plant in SA was announced in 2013, soon after Mr Abbott’s government was elected. It didn’t have anything to do with green energy or whatever. One of the first actions of the new government was to institute a Productivity Commission inquiry into support for the car industry, which was clearly likely to be unsympathetic. By the time it reported a year later, the industry had faded away. It has gone from Victoria – SA was about the last. There is an overview article here. The economics of the Australian car manufacturing had been shaky for long time.

None of this alters the fact that AMEO credits the plant closure for helping to stabilize the grid.

Removing consumption from the grid is as important as adding renewable capacity in a greenschist world. This is why the smart grid is of such critical importance to the greenschist-heads pushing renewable portfolio standards.

The only way you can transition from fossil fuels and nuclear power to renewables and still be able to charge your PEV overnight is to give the greenschist-heads a remote off switch, so they can kill your AC to free up power for PEV chargers. It will also empower them to drain your PEV battery, if the Sun and wind are misbehaving.

Anyway… I’m all for Australia’s idiotic energy policies. It’s lagniappe for US coal and LNG exports.

David,“None of this alters the fact that AMEO credits the plant closure for helping to stabilize the grid.”
No, of course. AEMO is just stating an obvious fact. Cutting demand makes the supply go further. What are you trying to infer? That AEMO procured the auto plant closure? AEMO is just a market manager.

Australia is exporting plenty of coal and LNG. LNG export has caused prices to skyrocket here.

I’m not trying to infer anything. The removal of load from the grid is a centerpiece of efforts to transition to renewables.

Regarding LNG:

Our advantage is that LNG exports won’t cause prices to “skyrocket” here because 1) natural gas production is growing much faster than demand and 2) coal-fired power plants are running at a very low utilization rate.

Australia’s Energy Luck Runs Out

By David Fickling

April 9, 2017

With its abundance of mineral wealth and sun-kissed shores, Australia takes pride in thinking of itself as the “lucky country.”

Politics lies at the heart of Australia’s current energy paradox: How can one of the world’s largest exporters be having trouble keeping its lights on?

Clearing Out

Australian wholesale electricity prices have doubled since the closure of the Hazelwood coal generator was announced

[…]

Wholesale electricity prices in Victoria have more than doubled since Nov. 3, when Engie SA announced plans to close its 1.6-gigawatt coal-fired Hazelwood power station. More shocks will follow: About 3.6 GW of coal generation capacity is scheduled for closure at present, rising to 7 GW by 2030 according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

[…]

Such changes shouldn’t cause this degree of difficulty. The U.S. has shut about 39 GW of coal-fired capacity since the end of 2012 without significant upsets, while the U.K. closed about 8.4 GW in the five years through 2015. Australia ought to be able to handle 1.6 GW dropping off the grid.

Part of the explanation is different trade dynamics. Thanks to its greater exposure to global export markets, gas in Australia has failed to undercut coal on price in the way it has in the U.S. and U.K.

Indeed, the country’s LNG plants are so hungry for volumes that they’ve been in direct competition with local generators. Since the closure of Hazelwood was announced, domestic gas prices have reset to match the regional spot LNG market:

Liquid Market

Australian natural gas prices have reset above those in the Asian LNG market

Rising fuel costs have been so damaging for the economics of gas-fired electricity that the Australian Energy Market Operator expects such generation to decline by about 15 percent between 2016 and 2021.Where coal is being replaced, it’s with renewables: Almost 70 percent of the additional planned capacity in the national electricity market is for wind-power plants, with a further 13 percent going to utility-scale solar.

It’s worth recognizing that this is good news. Faster withdrawal from fossil fuels is clearly better for the global climate, and the volume of wind and solar set to hit the market means there’s little risk of outright shortages over the next five years or so.

[…]

One challenge remains. If coal-power retirements accelerate, solar and wind will be unable to fill the gap quickly enough, especially given the way their variability can undermine the stability of the grid. The government’s plans to add 2 GW of hydroelectric capacity in the mountains southwest of Canberra will help, as will battery-storage proposals like the one Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has offered for South Australia. They won’t make the problem go away altogether.

The U.S. and Australian Race to Export Liquefied Natural Gas

Free market economies Australia and the U.S. will be in competition for the export of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). Since 2010, Australia’s gas demand has increased 10%, but its gas production has increased 35%, compared to an 8% increase for use and 38% gain in production for the U.S. Per BP data, Australia and the U.S. have netted 75% of the 260 Tcf gain in proven global gas reserves since 2005.

Australia could add six new LNG export terminals by 2020, tripling its liquefaction capacity to over 13 Bcf/day. Although Cheniere Energy’s U.S. LNG export facility at Sabine Pass, the first of its kind in the continental U.S., was delayed until late-February or so, the country could be exporting 10 Bcf/day by 2020, almost equaling current global leader Qatar.

Escalating labor costs have been a key factor in Australia’s drastic LNG cost overruns. In Australia, oil and gas workers can make $165,000, 30-35% more than in the U.S. and double the world’s average. One Harvard expert finds that “Australian LNG seems to be the worst business case globally,” with costs range being 2-3 times higher than in the U.S. (see here).

[…]

Daniel Yergin just said that the Saudi’s “will not destroy the US shale industry…It takes $10bn and five to ten years to launch a deep-water project. It takes $10m and just 20 days to drill for shale.” U.S. gas production is rising by 1.5% per year, three times faster than consumption (projections here).

Thus, U.S. gas prices will remain lower than in other markets, and arbitrage opportunities for companies to ship LNG will remain. North America’s gas prices are mostly set at liquid trading hubs, more linked to supply and demand fundamentals.

The key importing nations are not expected to be producing much more gas, so the internationally traded market will increase its current share of 30% of total gas consumed, closer to the 60% of oil demand that is traded internationally. Making gas more of a global commodity like oil, LNG now accounts for about 33% of all traded gas and 10-12% of total gas demand. The LNG market is just another example of the obvious: the world continues to become more connected, not less.

LNG exports will push US natural gas prices up into the range where coal is very competitive with gas in the electricity markets. However, fracking and shale plays will restrain the upside of natural gas prices. Coal power plants in the US are currently running at about 50% utilization rates. Even with the planned retirement of 38 GW of coal-fired capacity by 2050, a 75% utilization rate, driven by only slightly higher natural gas prices will enable 228 GW of coal-fired capacity to generate 30% more electricity (and burn 30% more coal) than 266 GW at a 50% utilization rate.

So… As someone who makes their living finding oil & natural gas, I say to Australia, “Thanks mates!”

@David Middleton
I’m not sure I agree with you that LNG exports from the USA will have no effect on the domestic price. As you point out, domestic over-supply is driving down domestic prices. It would seem that US exports will cause ripples in both directions, driving down world prices and driving up domestic prices as they relieve tight supplies world-wide and lower domestic inventories.

I didn’t say that it would have “no” effect. I said it wouldn’t cause them to skyrocket…

LNG exports will push US natural gas prices up into the range where coal is very competitive with gas in the electricity markets. However, fracking and shale plays will restrain the upside of natural gas prices.

That said, if the Marcellus was to crater or Bernie Sanders got elected in 2020 and banned fracking, gas prices would skyrocket.

What will stabilize the South Australia grid will be the new diesel powered generators that they are now going to install as a temporary measure while building a new gas fired plant due in action in two years. The diesel generators will be used as back up “only to be used if there are shortfalls”.

Apart from that I have to agree with Nick that the GM closure has nothing to do with the current power situation and has been in the making for more then a decade. The Australian state and federal governments have poured billions of dollars into the car industry over many years in a futile bid to keep jobs. It was not making sense any longer (never did but that is union pressure for you). So car makers are leaving the country.
The savings of those subsidies can now pay for the diesel plant, I guess in that sense yes the closing helps to stabilize the grid.

Removing load from the grid is part of the plan. That’s why they want the Smart Grid, Smart Meters and Smart Appliances. When everyone plugs in their Tesla Model 3 at 6 PM, the only way they can prevent a grid implosion is to reach into people’s homes and switch off the AC, pool pumps, washing machines, dryers and other energy hogs using the Smart Grid off switch…

Utility Nightmares Of Electric Cars
By MARGARET RYAN
on July 25, 2011

The first thing commuters in the environmentally aware neighborhood of the future do when they get home is plug in their electric cars, and that’s the problem.

“That’s a looming utility nightmare,” says Jim Pauley, Schneider Electric’s new senior vice president for External Affairs and Government Relations. “Utility infrastructure was built for something completely different,” he said, and neighborhood concentrations pulling new EV loads at 6 p.m. on still-hot afternoons could be disastrous for local distribution grids.

That’s one reason he’s hoping to see continued, and expanded, federal incentives to build out infrastructure for electric vehicle (EV) charging. Targeted charging technology would let utilities “talk” to chargers and spread out the demand and underpin the incentives to integrate an array of “smart” technology across the electricity system.

[…]

Two-way communication is the heart of all the “smart grid” talk, the digital controls that can let operators and consumers know and optimize electricity usage. In a recent interview in Washington DC, Pauley told Breaking Energy that communication starts at the generating plant and goes all the way into businesses and homes, where big loads like air-conditioning–and EV chargers–can be cycled by utilities. Communication is integral to municipal EV charging infrastructure, like the system Schneider is working on with Fort Collins, Colorado.

[…]

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has also been important in leveling the playing field for demand response, Pauley said, with FERC insisting that grid operators treat removing load on par with adding generation.

“The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has also been important in leveling the playing field for demand response, Pauley said, with FERC insisting that grid operators treat removing load on par with adding generation.“

Wow Nick, A newspaper is your source? I guess the aussie papers haven’t learned to fully obfuscate the truth because they accidently slipped in the truth in one paragraph from an actual credible source on why the car industry fizzles in AU:

Holden’s boss of international operations, Stefan Jacoby​, said at the time the decision to quit Australia was “driven purely by business rationale, and not by any direction this government or any future government would give their auto industry in Australia”.

So there you go, the only person to actually see the car industry books says it was purely business rationale, you know, margins. And in what crazy backwards greenwashed world does energy price not affect margins?

Who is going to pay to have their houses rewired to the smart meter to enable this to happen? The main reason the industry went with smart meters it to allow them to disconnect your power remotely when you cannot afford the bill!

There’s no need to rewire the house. The smart meter can connect with smart appliances through regular old wiring.

Replacing dumb meters with smart meters is easy. Forcing people to purchase smart appliances will take time… But it’s already in progress.

There’s also the “carrot & stick” program…

How does PECO Smart A/C Saver work?
A PECO Smart A/C Saver Digital Cycling Unit (DCU) is connected to your central air conditioning unit or heat pump. On selected days from June through September, we’ll automatically cycle participating air conditioners to help balance the region’s demand for electricity. These events are known as “conservation events”.

What is “cycling”?
When regional energy demand is high, your switch will receive a radio signal that will put your A/C compressor into a “conservation mode.” Your compressor will then operate 15 minutes of each half hour during the conservation event. However, during the entire conservation event, your A/C fan will run uninterrupted, circulating cool air throughout your home to maintain comfort.

What is a DCU?
A digital cycling unit, or DCU, is a switch that is connected near your exterior air conditioning unit. It receives a radio signal from PECO to turn off your air conditioning compressor (not your entire A/C system) for up to 15 minutes each half hour during “peak” summer afternoons. This helps manage system-wide electricity demand during times of peak usage.

Reading meters remotely is the reason people who work for the 3 local electric companies in our area gave when asked, and we asked them about it around the fire at deer camp in 1998 when “smart meter” stories starting popping up in media. I trust them more than any lawyer or activist from either side.

I didn’t say that it would have “no” effect. I said it wouldn’t cause them to skyrocket…

LNG exports will push US natural gas prices up into the range where coal is very competitive with gas in the electricity markets. However, fracking and shale plays will restrain the upside of natural gas prices.

That said, if the Marcellus was to crater or Bernie Sanders got elected in 2020 and banned fracking, gas prices would skyrocket.

More laid off workers means more poor people. The Socialists can now tell them stories about the unfairness of the system and how their dole should be increased and the wealthy (former investors in the car industry) should be taxed more aggressively to pay for it. The wealthy and formerly wealthy will read about this in their new beachfront homes in…Thailand! This is pretty much how things played out in the USSR, China, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, etc. Now what did those places have in common?

Premier jay will say he has solved the energy crisis and prove to the world renewables can power a modern city and renewables are the way to go blah blah blah….vote for me in march. All i can say is please dont.

So, things are working out exactly as planned then. Business/manufacturing closing, demand for electricity falling, the fairy dust and unicorn emissions can now cope with the demand. Too bad about all the folks out of a job or who can’t afford to use electricity any more.

The truly ironic thing is that one of the businesses that has had to close in south Australia as a result of exorbitant electricity prices is a recycling plant (you know, something that really does help keep plastics and other rubbish from cluttering up the environment) – go figure.

“This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution.”

Thank you Steve. A couple of years ago I put that quote to my former conservative federal MP (he had what most thought was an unloseable seat in South Australia) and for the first time ever he did not reply to my email. I suspect that rational pollies just don’t believe that those words were ever uttered.

The real problem with this statement isn’t even it’s ambition, it’s the parameters. Does Christiana Figueres have a definition of what constitutes the end point of the change. In other words, does she even know what an international fair living wage, or living conditions look like?

And once the change has begun, which it has, how does she stop it when it has reached her undefined perfect world’.

I’m sure I have no need to tell you this, but it’s zealous, idealistic, socialist, global subjugation of the world community to a UN single government.

What the UN hasn’t realized yet is that they are putting themselves out of business. As the Western nations destroy themselves economically, the funding for the UN will also disappear. If they think the new, prosperous nations will fund them in return, they are crazy.

For our American friends this state is littered with the ruins and abandoned buildings mainly from Government decisions.
It’s an amazing place to visit so you can see first hand the waste and broken dreams just about everywhere throughout the state .

I was in Adelaide (State Capital of South Australia) a few days ago. Some fire fighters were collecting for charity, selling calendars. I didn’t want a calendar, but I offered a donation. To my surprise they put the donation in a donation pocket – there was no collection tin. I asked why, they said they had problems with people snatching tins.

This is the first time I have heard of such a problem in Australia. But I guess if you shut down enough jobs, people get desperate.

“For our American friends this state is littered with the ruins and abandoned buildings mainly from Government decisions.”

That would be old news here in America.

For instance, Upstate New York, from Buffalo to Albany, is also littered with the ruins and abandoned buildings of a once great thriving manufacturing economy, the demise of which was mainly the fault of Government decisions.

And when the manufacturing vacated the area, the local business economy quickly followed suite.

Town, city, county, state and federal governments agencies, including Public School Districts, are the parasitic “blood (tax) sucking” ticks which are the primary “root cause” of the demise of established profitable business ventures in a given local or regional economy.

The aforesaid government agencies keep increasing their employee numbers each year, ……. keep increasing the salaries and entitlements of their employee each year, ……. permit their employee to retire after 20 years with retirement benefits and entitlements almost equal to what they were receiving when working their old “part time do-nothing job” ……. and with many of said retirees receiving increases in retirement pay whenever a pay raise is authorized for the employee(s) position they just retired from.

Thus, the cost of the aforesaid government agencies keep increasing exponentially every year, …… and consequently, …… the taxes are increased every year on the aforesaid established profitable business ventures in a given local or regional economy which eventually forces them into an unprofitable situation and they are forced to close their doors and/or relocate to a locale where the parasitic “blood (tax) sucking” ticks are not taking such a BIG gulp out of their earned profits.

This is not a new concept – in agriculture the workforce required 100-150 years ago was 20-40% of the working population – now reduced to less than 1%.

Product design and technology encourages more reliable products often using less material, all put together automatically. The most efficient plants which will win the race depend on high volumes to reduce unit prices.

Australia does not have cheap labour rates, a large enough local market, or the export potential to justify car plants. So it is going the way of most developed economies, treating manufacturing (except at the high end) as a commodity activity. The energy issues are I suspect a smokescreen.

The % of people in the ag sector approached 70-80%, depending on country and century. I use this reference when I am told how many people are employed in solar. I point out that we could increase employment even more, going back to manual farming.

even using some machinery a damn sight more people could do ag work and be healthier and fitter for doing so as well.
i used to earn a one time ayr wage for grapepicking for a max of 6 weeks
that allowed me to buy tyres/reg the car.fix something.
then?
contractors with machines put me and all the other locals out of the meagre wage we did get, hard hot n heavy work and we were happy to have it.

This is the reason Thatcher took the UK from an industrialised nation, to a service nation.

Whilst technology is successfully eliminating expensive labour, and producing better and cheaper products as a consequence, there are fewer opportunities for the less well educated, cue the GIG economy.

However, Thatcher saw this all coming and encouraged the City of London and other intellectually led environments to flourish as there will always be a demand for intellectual innovation and employment.

Subsequent UK governments have almost cut that endeavour off at the knees, with no alternative ambition for the country. It now simply lurches from one crisis to another and even the current conservative government promotes socialism as the answer.

A country rich in minerals and fossil fuels deciding to not have industries utilising them. Instead they have the lot shipped overseas where others do useful things like making steel and ships from them. And get really rich doing it.

Here’s the intelligence test: what do you call a country like that. Answer: a colony.

Good point – we should have been value adding our gifts like heck. EG we should have been the hardwood manufacturing capital of the world. Instead we Woodchip it for paper manufacture. Really???? Every commercial vehicle in Australia (below say 3 tonnes) should have been running on LPG in the 70’s. Not this Ethanol BS we have been sold as a renewable.

All for 1 in 60 million molecules (Australia’s contribution) of CO2. I am continually astounded by the folly of pollies. Every time I think, “Well that’s the pits” promptly another idiot excels even further.

ComEd’s harassing letters have turned to letters of praise now that I’ve moved out while I try to sell. What I do isn”t nearly as important as making it easier for ComEd to charge more while providing less.

When that plants closes, there will be way more than 13,000 lost jobs. Many of the jobs that are needed to support the plant and it’s employees will also go. Could easily lose more than 50,000 jobs in total.

As an old ozzie one has to tell the world that we are at the moment encumbered in our federal state and local councils with a pack of idiots. They are all trying to outdo one another with their green credentials, thus we are suffering the pangs of stupidity on a monumental scale. The only things that keep me sane are my V8 Utility, my huge bonfires and rides on my very loud Harley. This is my one finger salute to stupidity.

Here we have one of the characteristics of a renewable powered grid – it requires a generous overcapacity of generation sources, even during typical conditions. One can achieve that either by reducing demand or by adding more generation capacity. The better solution is to add reliable capacity. Regardless, you will always need overcapacity – the greater the percentage of renewables
the greater the overcapacity required. Overcapacity increases costs. While renewables being accepted onto the grid in preference to non-renewables results (usually, not always – nuclear)
in reduced fuel costs. But fuel costs are often not even the dominant expense of a power plant,
so accepting renewablepower in preference to non-renewable, plant produced power, causes
the per unit costs of the power produced by the plant to increase, since its capacity is reduced.
A plant produces its cheapest power, obviously, when it is operating at full capacity. In the case of nuclear this is very pronounced, since fuel for a nuclear plants costs very little (less than a penny per kWhr) and, in any event, a nuclear plant cannot ramp up and down fast enough to actually save any fuel. So redcuing the capacity of nuclear plant by 50% , increses its per unit costs by almost double. THAT is why some of our nuclear plants have been losing money (those located in regions where a lot of renewable power is avaialble to the grid) which began when utilities were required to accept renewable power in preference to every other type of generation. A really stupid move whose side effects the braindead politicans didn’t even realize. So now the same politicians have to subsidize the nuclear plants, else lose their reliable power source and place the grid in jeopardy.
Stupidiy at every step in the process. At the top of the list is the idiocy that while the object is to use low carbon power, they excluded the lowest carbon producer of them all – nuclear. That compliments of the 40 year campaign by the left wing against nuclear power. Like I said, stupidity
all around.

“The exit of a once powerful manufacturing sector will see the state using less electricity…”

If they are this giddy about losing manufacturing jobs, how overjoyed would they be if a disaster took out half the state’s population? That would not only result in the use of much less electricity but would also greatly cut human emissions of CO2.